By  John Morton

There is some evidence that companies, both multinational and African, operating from motivations that can be very broadly labelled “Corporate Social Responsibility”, can make real and significant contributions to pastoral development and that useful development dialogues can be held with them. But three case studies, from Uganda, Ethiopia and Senegal, also suggest that companies operating in “CSR” mode show a systemic tendency to attempt to teach proper engagement with markets, and remarkably little readiness to learn how pastoralists and other livestock-keepers wish to engage with markets, and what constrains them from doing so. When allied with the intrinsic complexity of livestock-keepers’ objectives and constraints in production and marketing, this tendency to teach rather than learn severely limits the potential development contribution of CSR.